How High Temperature Data Centers and Intel Technologies Decrease Operating Costs

Transcription

1 Intel Intelligent Management How High Temperature Data Centers and Intel Technologies Decrease Operating Costs and cooling savings through the use of Intel s Platforms and Intelligent Management features in a High Temperature Data Center Environment Intel Corporation April 2012

2 Contents Executive Summary... 2 Business Opportunity 2 Background: Tellhow Gitong Technology LTD 2 Technical Challenge... 3 High Temperature Ambient Data Center Operations ASHRAE Guidelines 3 Shanghai Climate Data Summary 4 Compute Design Considerations... 4 Modular Data Center Design Considerations 5 Business Value... 5 Without the use of Free Cooling $75,686.40USD: 6 With the use of Free Cooling $42,888.96USD: 6 Total possible saving with Free Cooling : 6 Overall Results... 6 Glossary... 7 Executive Summary A High Temperature Ambient (HTA) Modular Data Center (MDC) will save Gitong customers operational costs. There are three key metrics covered in this whitepaper when considering MDC and HTA: Business Opportunity Increasing compute density in DC s will continue to result in corresponding increase in rack and room power densities. Gitong wants to utilize the latest technologies to gain the best performance and best energy efficiency across their Cloud Computing Business offering. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air- Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) have set out two options that weighs reliability against energy i.e. the use of UPS and cooling in a 2n (redundancy by duplication) configuration is very reliable but requires more energy to operate. 1. Location environmental data 2. Server platform selection 3. Modular Data Center design considerations The objective is to maximize the savings by increasing the MDC operation temperature of the servers by utilizing outside air to remove heat from the MDC. Table 2 - ASHRAE s Technical Committee TC9.9, Mission Critical Facilities, Technology Spaces and Electronic Equipment Modular Data Center (MDC) A Modular Data Center is a rapid method of deploying data center capacity. It can be used as an alternative or in conjunction with a traditional data center. A modular data center can be placed anywhere Data Center/Compute capacity is needed. High Temperature Ambient (HTA) Table 1 MDC and HTA definition Raising the operating temperature within the MDC increases the number of hours that outside air can be used to dissipate heat and increases power utilization efficiency. Background: Gitong Technology LTD a subsidiary of Tellhow Gitong is a leading provider of Green Data Center (GDC) products, offering carrier-grade GDC products that fully meet international standards. Gitong GDC products include container GDC and module GDC featuring worldclass high efficiency, power savings with lower carbon emissions. Gitong has both technical skill and development experience, which comes from years of manufacturing

3 experience. Gitong has incorporated various Global standards to developed methodologies for the GDC, such as PUE and high-efficiency thermal server performance testing in conjunction with Intel. Gitong has a manufacturing and test facilities in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province; People Republic of China. They have sales and service teams throughout the country. Technical Challenge The power and thermal optimization problem becomes one of thermodynamics, i.e.: dissipating heat generated by the servers with a mixture of outside air and/or recirculated air. This is done by passing the air through the servers. The servers transfer the heat to the air and then ducting hot exhaust air. High Temperature Ambient Data Center Operations Before a cloud service provider considers the use of HTA in the data center, the external ambient Class A1: Typically a data center with tightly controlled environmental parameters (dew point, temperature, and relative humidity) and mission critical operations; types of products typically designed for this environment are enterprise servers and storage products. Class A2: Typically an information technology (IT) space with some control of environmental parameters (dew point, temperature, and relative humidity). Class A3/A4: Typically an IT space with some control of environmental parameters listed above. The new guidelines were developed with a focus on providing as much information as possible to the data center operator to allow them to operate in the most energy efficient mode and still achieve the reliability necessary as required by their business. Two new data center classes are created to achieve the most flexibility in the operation of the data center. The four data center classes including the two new ones (A3 and A4) are shown in the psychometric chart below. temperature conditions play a large role in determining how many hours the data center can utilize free cooling. The servers also need to operate within warranty specifications by the server manufacturer ASHRAE Guidelines ASHRAE has defined extended range of operational conditions for IT loads in the Data Center, known as classes. Compliance with a particular environmental Figure 1 - Psychrometric Chart class requires full operation of the equipment over the entire allowable environmental range, based on nonfailure conditions.

4 free cooling most of the year based on the average maximum daily temperature. The number of days that are above 32 C are in the summer (July and August) and free cooling is still possible by increasing the airflow and increasing MDC operating temperature above Table ASHRAE Thermal Guidelines IT Equipment Operations Shanghai Climate Data Summary The 2008 climate data provided by the US Dept of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was analyzed to investigate operating the Gitong MDC Data Center in HTA mode to decreased cooling costs. Table 4 Shanghai Climate Data 35 C. Compute Design Considerations When selecting a platform for HTA operations the platform must be able to operate at high temperatures without offsetting the benefits of HTA with a platform power increase. The power increase is a result of both fan power, component power and the power conversion for each. The component power increase is a result of an increase in leakage current for some silicon devices. As an example of the usage of Figure 2 Server Increase vs Ambient Temperature for Classes A2 and A3, if a data center is normally operating at a server inlet temperature of 15 C and the operator wants to raise this temperature to 30 C, it could be expected that the server power would increase in the range of 4 to 8%. If the inlet temperature increases to 35 C, the IT equipment power could increase in the range of 7 to 20% compared to operating at 15 C. Table 5 Shanghai Climate Graph The chart above graphs the recorded minimum and maximum temperatures in Shanghai. The graph shows that, if the current data center computer room is set to 35 C, there will be an opportunity to run

5 of the range in Figure 2 Server Increase vs Ambient Temperature for Classes A2 and A3 Modular Data Center Design Considerations The MDC needs to consider the following requirements to ensure that the PUE is maximized. Currently design PUE is 1.8; to move to the goal of 1.02 the MDC needs the following: Figure 2 Server Increase vs Ambient Temperature for Classes A2 and A3 Intel server platform provided by Enterprise Platforms and Services Division (EPSD) documents the requirements for improving energy consumption and computing efficiency in the Enabling Server Platforms for Expanded Thermal Environments 1. The warranty provided by EPSD HTA product SKUs will operate at 35 C and considers this as normal operating temperature. EPSD HTA SKUs support excursions of 40 C for 900hrs or 10% of year and 45 C for 90hrs or 1% of the year. This will yield cost savings as the temperature data shows that Shanghai does will be in the operating temperature listed above. The climate data is not sufficiently granular to depict the hours at 40 C and 45 C respectively. The assumption that even the 29days (696hours) would not be at these temperatures constantly each day, and the MDC could operate within the server warranty specification. New products from manufactures like EPSD will be provided for class A3/4 with improved heat sinks, thermal shadowing and/or fans to properly cool the components, so the power increases is at the low end 1 Document Number:469017, Revision Access to outside air 2. Outside air filter system 3. Humidity control system 4. No Uninterruptable Supply (UPS) 5. Server power monitoring and tracking with Intel Node Manager and Data Center Manager 6. Fan control system All Data Center systems need to be coordinated through a Building Management System (BMS). Business Value The MDC designed with all the design consideration listed above the MDC could improve the PUE from 1.8 to The IT load stays constant at 8kW/rack with 6 racks within each MDC. Table 6 - Without the use of Free Cooling below enumerate the cost savings for a MDC with no HTA and no implementation of the design consideration listed above. The operational cost of power is $75, USD/annum. Table 7 -With the use of Free Cooling below enumerate the cost savings for a MDC with HTA and implementation of the design consideration listed

6 above. The operational cost of power is $42,888.96USD/annum. Without the use of Free Cooling $75,686.40USD: Time Number Units 365 days 24 hours Total Hours 8,760 hours Platform Total 8 kw 6 # of racks 420,480 Efficiency 1.8 PUE MDC 336,384 kw Total 756,864 kw Cost $ 0.10 USD/kWh Total Cost $ 75, USD/kWh Table 6 - Without the use of Free Cooling Overall Results An HTA Modular Data Center based on EPSD server platforms has clearly shown that there are three key metrics covered in this whitepaper when considering MDC and HTA: 1. Location environmental data 2. Server platform selection 3. Modular Data Center design considerations The objective is to maximize the savings by increasing the MDC operation temperature of the servers. This would lead to a potentially yearly operational savings of $32, /annum/mdc. With the use of Free Cooling $42,888.96USD: Time Number Units 365 days 24 hours Total Hours 8,760 hours Platform Total 8 kw 6 # of racks 420,480 Efficiency 1.02 PUE MDC 8,410 kw Total 428,890 kw Cost $ 0.10 USD/kWh Total Cost $ 42, USD/kWh Table 7 -With the use of Free Cooling Total possible saving with Free Cooling : $75, $42, = $32, /annum/mdc

7 Glossary usage effectiveness (PUE) PUE is a measure of how efficiently a computer data center uses its power; specifically, how much of the power is actually used by the computing equipment (in contrast to cooling and other overhead lower PUE is better). BMC MDC DC DCM NM ASHRAE CFD CRAC DC DCIE HTA ODM PUE TCO TAmbient Board Management Controller Modular Data Center Data Center Intel Data Center Manager Intel Intelligent Node Manager The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers Computational Fluid Dynamics Computer Room Air Conditioner Unit, used inter-changeably with AHU Data Center Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency High Ambient Temperature Original Design Manufacturer Usage Effectiveness Total Cost of Ownership Air temperature at economizer outlet Disclaimers Δ Intel processor numbers are not a measure of performance. Processor numbers differentiate features within each processor family, not across different processor families. See products/processor_number for details. INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH INTEL PRODUCTS. NO LICENSE, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, BY ESTOPPEL OR OTHERWISE, TO ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IS GRANTED BY THIS DOCUMENT. EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN INTEL S TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE FOR SUCH PRODUCTS, INTEL ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER, AND INTEL DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, RELATING TO SALE AND/OR USE OF INTEL PRODUCTS INCLUDING LIABILITY OR WARRANTIES RELATING TO FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR INFRINGEMENT OF ANY PATENT, COPYRIGHT OR OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT. UNLESS OTHERWISE AGREED IN WRITING BY INTEL, THE INTEL PRODUCTS ARE NOT DESIGNED NOR INTENDED FOR ANY APPLICATION IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE INTEL PRODUCT COULD CREATE A SITUATION WHERE PERSONAL INJURY OR DEATH MAY OCCUR. Intel may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice. Designers must not rely on the absence or characteristics of any features or instructions marked reserved or undefined. Intel reserves these for future definition and shall have no responsibility whatsoever for conflicts or incompatibilities arising from future changes to them. The information here is subject to change without notice. Do not finalize a design with this information. The products described in this document may contain design defects or errors known as errata which may cause the product to deviate from published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request. Contact your local Intel sales office or your distributor to obtain the latest specifications and before placing your product order. Copies of documents which have an order number and are referenced in this document, or other Intel literature, may be obtained by calling , or by visiting Intel s Web site at Copyright 2012 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, Xeon inside, and Intel Intelligent Node Manager are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.